I am reading that even if you delete a file from the recycle bin (empty the recycle bin) you can use a third party software to recover it. It is beyond Windows to recover it.

I deleted some Microsoft Word, Works documents and some project build pictures. They are "somewhere" on floppy discs", too. But, I may discover a new planet before ever finding this data on unlabeled discs!

Is there a free or a pay software that might help me do this? This is not a life and death thing, but it is like losing your little league baseball trophies, you would rather have them than be lost for good.

Thanks

Yes there are tools. Anywhere from $30-$50. Do a google search for windows file recovery.

Try a free download to see if you can recover what you want, then buy it if it works

Keep in mind the more you use your disk the more you erase clusters occupied by parts of deleted files and kill chances of recovery.

I have a question. These files were already backed up on an old hard drive. This drive was out of my old computer. I was using it as my backup storage so I could unplug it in case of storms, etc.

I went and bought an additional external hard drive that was larger for the same purpose. I moved everything from the old hard drive to the new hard drive, or so I thought, meaning I intended to copy it, not cut or delete anything.

I must have cut it or deleted the data from the old hard drive and the backup did not work.

Finally, the question. When it asked me where to look, where were the files deleted from....Do I need to actually look in the two external hard drive locations? Or, in my main computer's hard drive as files had to pass thru it's recycle bin?

Not sure how to answer but... This is how it works. The recycle bin is BY DRIVE…. On your computer it looks ilike one but if you have 2 drives there is one for each drive.

Same for externals. The key thing is that when you delete a file only the pointer to the file is deleted. The file is still there until something uses the space….. Now the bad news. A “backup” depending on what you use, makes its own file structure and index. The windows recycle bin goes out the window.

You need to rethink where the most likely location of the files was LAST and try to recover fro there.

LOL. Okay, I can do that. I specialize in "not-the-run-of-the-mill" problems.

Thanks again!